Stargate: New Frontier - The Reboot
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: AU Stargate. What could have happened if the stargate had never been discovered. How would things be different for Humanity and the Goa'uld when they finally meet.
1. Chapter 1

**Stargate: New Frontier – The Reboot**

**Authors Notes: This is a complete reboot and updating of my previous New Frontier story. As much as it pains me to admit it I feel that the other was lacking a great deal of direction and without a strong core of characters making it feel like story was nothing but a series of interconnected short stories. That was not my intention when I began the story back in 2008.**

**After some thought I've come up with what I think will be a new and interesting take on the story line. Some of the characters that appeared before will appear again however others – as much as it pains me to remove them – will not appear again. A new core thread has been added and I have also changed a number of aspects of Terran technology as on reflection I didn't like some parts of what I did with it the first time around. Terran naval personnel will now also follow a more traditional naval ranking system unlike in the previous version of the story. The final change I'm making is the story will be divided up into a series of books that will hopefully span the length of the time to tell the story I want to tell.**

**Otherwise the background of the story remains the same with the Stargates having gone undiscovered on Earth and still lying forgotten beneath sand and ice.**

**Edit 24/01/2015: Some minor changes to correct a few plot holes and the addition of codex entries to fill out the back history.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Book One: Contact<strong>

**Chapter One**

**Terran Federation Survey Ship Charles Darwin**

**March 2****nd**** 2535**

Doctor Melinda Jackson wore a pleased smile as she carefully studied the data displayed on a holographic screen floating a few inches in front of her face. The information being a summary of the report compiled by Survey Command after analysing data from a probe that had passed through the region they were heading for nearly a year ago. Specifically information on the planet they'd found occupying the liquid water zone around a bright F-type star. A planet that the probes brief scan confirmed to possess a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and liquid water on its surface.

It was now her job to make sure the planet was indeed suitable for human habitation. Which wasn't always guaranteed to be the case, on a number of occasions in the past worlds with Earth-like atmospheres had been found to be unsuitable for one reason or another. As it wasn't like it had been in those first few years after humanity had discovered the secrets of hyperspace technology, before the founding of the modern Terran Federation, back when the old Earth nation states had still existed as separate entities and competed with one another to establish a presence in space. Back then any planet with a breathable atmosphere and liquid water had been greedily snapped up without any thought of how to survive there long term or even if humans could.

The result had been worlds like Circe or Alpha Centauri B III to use its official designation. The planet had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and liquid water but it was also nearly half again the mass of Earth with a surface gravity to match. Of course that hadn't stopped the first colonists driven by the nationalistic fervour of the pre-Federation era, from attempting to settle there. It hadn't been easy and for a time it had looked like the planet would have to be abandoned. To survive long term the colonists had been forced to bio-engineer their own children to cope with the higher gravity of Circe. Which had all been well and good; but it had made it impossible for the first colonist's descendants to survive long term on a normal gravity world – their muscles and connective tissue atrophied in normal gravity just like a normal Terrans would if they stayed for any long period on a lower gravity planet.

They could do it short or medium term but for Circeans survival away from their world long term wasn't possible, rigorous exercise and medimites could only do so much to hold off the degeneration. Thus to all intents and purposes Circeans were trapped on their world, or living on starships and space habitats where their worlds level of gravity could be maintained indefinitely.

And they were the fortunate ones.

Several other early colonies had not been so lucky and been forced to be abandoned within the first few decades of their colonisation for a variety of reasons – usually environmental though sometimes geological, one colony having to be after a sudden massive upsurge in volcanic activity poisoned the atmosphere. Which was why one of the first acts of parliament after the founding of the Terran Federation was to ban colonisation of worlds that didn't fall within some very strict environmental and geological guidelines.

So far it looked, to Melinda at least, that the world they were heading for would be one of those that fell within the guidelines. Of course they still had to do checks for hostile flora and fauna, but she had a good feeling about it. A feeling that said it would be safe. Still feelings wouldn't be enough, she would have to find solid proof that the planet was suitable to become the first Terran colony in this sector.

Carefully Melinda made small bullet points of all the most important details of the planet, then saved them to one of the memory storage nodes of her neural implant. Then she saved and closed the file making the holographic screen floating in front of her vanish into thin air. After taking a moment to stretch she stood up. _Not long now till we drop out of hyperspace,_ she thought, knowing they would be approaching their destination after nearly twelve hours in hyperspace, _I wonder if I have enough time to go and get a coffee._

She was just leaving her quarters to go and get a coffee from the mess hall when the comm. unit on her wrist buzzed and vibrated for attention. _Now what,_ she thought before raising the offending device and answering the hail.

"Jackson," she acknowledged.

"Professor its Captain Drake," the _Charles Darwin's_ master answered, even as a small holographic image of the man himself appeared over the device. "We're approaching our destination. Would you care to come to the bridge?"

"I'll be right there," Melinda replied, she always liked being present on the bridge when they emerged from hyperspace over a new world. She liked being one of the first people to ever set eyes on a new planet; it was a personality quirk of hers.

"Good I look forward to seeing you, Drake out." The wrist comm. went dead; Melinda smiled and lowered her arm before changing direction for the lift that would take her up to the _Charles Darwin's_ small bridge.

* * *

><p><strong>Bridge<strong>

Captain Matthew Drake smiled softly as he closed the comm. channel with Professor Jackson. Having worked with her for several years he had come to know and like the woman. In addition to being one hell of a scientist, she was very easy on the eyes and a good conversationalist. She was also one of the few people aboard that he could enjoy a decent game of chess with.

"Sir if you don't mind my asking why invite the professor to the bridge," Commander Richard Swain asked from his workstation. Matt smiled slightly, having expected the question, Richard was new to this job, this being the first deep space mission together, his previous first officer having been promoted to captain and given his own command.

"Melinda likes being one of the first people to set eyes upon a new world, Commander," he replied before gesturing to the bridge view ports. The entire front of the bridge of the survey ship was a view port out into space, and currently showing nothing but the glowing blue tunnel effect of hyperspace. "She can do that best from up here," Matt added.

"I guess so," Richard replied glancing at the view ports, he still wasn't used to them. It was such a departure from the warships he had served on in the past, which invariably had their command centres buried deep within the armoured core of the vessel, safe from all but a mortal blow. "Sorry, sir, I'm just not used to having a view like this from the bridge."

Matt smiled remembering that he had been the same when he had first stepped onto the _Charles Darwin_ as master. "You'll get used to it," he assured the younger man before turning to business matters. "Helmsman, time to destination coordinates?"

"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in one minute, thirty seconds sir," Lieutenant Jacobs reported from the combined helm/navigator stations.

"Tactical sound amber alert status," Matt ordered following the protocol demanded for emerging from hyperspace over a new world. A protocol he knew many of the scientists didn't agree with but they'd never had the briefings he'd been given when he'd become a ship master. "Bring all defence systems to stand by."

"Aye, sir," tactical replied, pressing the controls to sound the alert throughout the ship and bring the ships shields and limited weapons arrays onto stand by. Though primarily a survey and exploration vessel the _Charles Darwin_ was still a commissioned vessel of the Federal Navy and like her warship cousins she was not defenceless, though her shields were weaker and her weapons positively anaemic in comparison to a comparable sized destroyer.

As the familiar two-toned klaxon sounded throughout the ship, summoning the small military crew of fifty-seven to their stations the door to the corridor that separated the bridge from the lift down to the rest of the ship opened, admitting Melinda. Who just resisted the impulse to roll her eyes at the alert being sounded; she didn't see why it was necessary. In the four and half centuries since hyperspace technology was developed the Terran Federation hadn't encountered any other race technologically advanced enough to pose any sort of threat to them; though they had encountered other species on various planets none were advanced beyond an early industrial level. The only enemy the Human race had was as always itself. And she would have been very surprised to encounter pirates or mercenary bands this far from the established space-lanes.

"How long till we come out of hyperspace," she asked, knowing better than to say anything about the increase in alert level as Matt would just start reminding her that it was standing orders.

"About forty seconds," Matt replied. Melinda nodded and went to stand before the bridge windows and looked out at the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace. A blink superimposed a small digital clock in the lower right hand side of her vision, courtesy of her implant. The clock counted down the seconds till they returned to normal space.

As the seconds wound down she heard a change in the soft humming of the hyperdrive, a change in tone as it began to power down. As her countdown reached zero the humming vanished to nothing, through the view ports the tunnel through subspace evaporated replaced with breath-taking suddenness by the star spangled darkness of normal space. For a moment all Melinda saw was the stars, and then slowly the planet she was to survey appeared in the corner of window as _Charles Darwin_ began orbital insertion manoeuvres.

Melinda didn't move from her position as the ship entered orbit above the ring system surrounding the planet. The blue-green world, marbled with swirls of clouds was certainly beautiful to look at, and she found herself wishing that it would have no hidden nasty surprises that would prevent colonization.

"Orbital insertion completed, sir," Lieutenant Jacobs reported.

"Very good," Matt replied then smiled at Melinda. "Professor if you would like to do the honours."

Melinda smiled, this was a familiar part of the routine on this ship and she appreciated Matt allowing her to give this one order. "Tactical, launch probes," she ordered.

"Aye, ma'am," tactical reported pressing a control on his console; with a hollow series of thuds a number of probes birthed from the _Charles Darwin's _belly and streaking away from her. The probes split up into two groups, some heading up into a higher orbit to commence high orbital scans of the planet, while others descended into the atmosphere to begin lower altitude scans and run tests on the atmosphere, searching for anything, any organisms that could be hazardous to the teams that Melinda would lead down later.

"Probes on course," sensors reported. "Rerouting probe telemetry to the main lab, wait probes in the atmosphere are picking up a cluster of heat sources coming from the western continent."

"Identify," Matt demanded knowing a localised cluster of heat sources could be anything. From something as mundane and simple as a forest fire to something much more serious like a pirate base – though it would be beyond unusual for them to run the sensor gauntlet of the sentry stations and set up a base out here, far beyond the space-lanes where they found their prey not to mention where they could easily access the black market to sell on their ill-gotten gains.

"I believe they're camp or cooking fires sir," sensors answered.

"There is someone alive down there," Matt exclaimed in surprise.

"There shouldn't be," Melinda objected in shock. "The probe scans of this planet reported no sign of any sentient life being present. Can you recheck the readings please?"

The officer manning the station looked at Matt for permission and got a confirming nod. He quickly rechecked the readings and even ran an additional scan with the _Charles Darwin's_ primary sensor array. "Readings confirmed," he reported after a moment. "Main sensors are also picking up a significant cluster of life forms near what appears to be the beginnings of an open caste mine they look like they could be human but I can't be sure. There's some kind of particulate dust in the air over the encampment that's partially scattering our sensors, exact composition unknown. Curiously we're picking up very little in the way of electromagnetic or subspace emissions from the surface beyond a very faint subspace emission centred approximately two kilometres north of the mine however I cannot identify the precise source due to the particulate interference."

"Very odd," Matt mused in confusion. "Scan the planet again look for any sign of landed ships."

"Aye sir," sensor acknowledged before doing as bid. "Negative sir. There is no sign at all that any ships have ever been here before, let alone landed on the surface."

"Then how on Earth did these people get here," Richard asked.

"Unknown, sir."

"It appears we have something of a mystery on our hands," Melinda commented, eyes alight with excitement as to a scientist nothing was as riveting as a good mystery. Especially a mystery as odd as this one seemed to be. She was especially curious about how these people got here and what the odd particulates in the atmosphere were that were partially scattering their sensor returns. To the best of her knowledge there were no materials in existence that could do that, as like all survey ships the sensor suite of the _Charles Darwin_ was state of the art.

"So it would appear," Matt agreed a sudden apprehension growing at the back of his mind. If he was right, and he hoped he wasn't, then something that the president and chiefs of staff, not to mention every starship captain, had long dreaded was about to come to pass. A potential threat that they'd been aware of for decades, but one they had hoped and prayed that they would never, ever truly encounter. The problem was he couldn't share his suspicions, not without proof. The Pandora Protocols were unfortunately very clear on that particular issue.

"Matt we need to go down there," Melinda said breaking him out of his thoughts. "We need to figure out how these people got here and the best way to do that would be to make contact with them."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Melinda," he argued back. "Something's wrong here, really wrong here and I'm not comfortable taking the ship down until we know more."

"Then let me take a shuttle," Melinda answered. "Let me and my team go down there."

"Melinda…"

"With our sensors being disrupted it's the only way we're going to learn more," Melinda cut him off before he could argue any further.

Matt sighed. He was honestly torn about what to do as at the end of the day the safety of Melinda and her teams were his responsibility, thus he didn't really want her going down there if they were where he feared they could be. But without proof he couldn't inform her about the potentially very dangerous situation they'd be going into, proof that they wouldn't be able to get from orbit.

"Alright fine," he said at last conceding that she did have a point. Melinda started to smile in victory only for the smile to die on her lips when he spoke again. "But I want some of the marines to go down with you. I'm not sending you down into a potentially dangerous situation without some protection."

Melinda scowled. While she personally had nothing against any of the marines assigned to the _Charles Darwin_ as part of the ships security detachment, she didn't like the idea of taking them down to the surface with her. They could only really get in the way of her team doing their job. But unfortunately one look at Matt's face showed he wasn't going to budge on the issue of taking the marines with her, she either took some of them or she didn't go down.

"Fine have them meet me and my team in the shuttle bay," she said at last, preparing to leave the bridge to get ready. Only to pause as Matt called her name, prompting her to turn back around and look at him questioningly.

"Be careful down there," Matt told her.

"I will don't worry," Melinda replied, genuinely touched by the honest concern she could see in those expressive blue-grey eyes of his. Then she turned round and left the bridge.

"Sir is something wrong," Richard asked from the first officer's station.

"Possibly, Commander," Matt admitted, "and no I can't talk about yet. Suffice to say I'm concerned about what we've found here. I want you to follow the landing party's progress carefully, Commander. And get engineering to see if they can somehow reconfigure our sensors to cut through that particulate interference."

"Aye sir."

"Sensors?"

"Sir?"

"I want you to begin running continuous scans of the space around the ship. Let me know if you spot anything unusual no matter how insignificant it seems."

"Aye sir."

* * *

><p><strong>Twenty Minutes Later<strong>

Melinda resisted the impulse the fidget impatiently as the Columbus-class exploration shuttle carrying her, her senior team members and two marines cleared the side of the _Charles Darwin_. Within seconds the pilot angled them away from the side of the exploration vessel and began guiding the shuttle down into the atmosphere. She could hardly wait for them to land, then she could start trying to find the answers to the interference in the atmosphere, the presence of humans on this planet, how they had gotten here over a hundred and fifty light years from the borders of the Terran Federation, and why they seemed to have little or nothing in the way of advanced technology.

One thing she knew for sure was that there was something well… wrong here. The way Matt had behaved up on the bridge had her worried, very worried as she'd never known him to act that way before now. Oh they'd occasionally had differences of opinion on things, but he'd never been reluctant to land before or really pushed for marines to accompany the first landing parties. If she didn't know any better she would have thought he knew, or at least suspected, something about the human presence on this unnamed planet. Something that had him deeply, deeply worried; something he obviously couldn't share with her for reasons that probably involved the term classified.

_Hopefully we will soon get some answers about the people here and it won't be as bad as whatever it is Matt is worried about,_ she thought as the shuttle started to vibrate as it entered the upper atmosphere of the planet. The disturbance of the shuttle entering the atmosphere flash heating tenuous upper atmospheric gasses resulting in a flickering, glowing sheath of relatively low-temperature plasma. Melinda gripped the edges of her seat as despite the inertial dampeners the shuttle vibrated fiercely from the turbulence. Through the view ports she could see nothing but blazing ions dissolving in a bluish-white shimmer as they encountered the force field that hugged the hull of the shuttle like a second skin, the effect giving the hull a ghostly Saint Elmo's fire aura at they descended.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity the turbulence ceased and the plasma sheath evaporated to nothing as the shuttle entered thicker atmosphere. Turning to her team she spoke up.

"Okay people listen up," she said. "By now you all know about the settlement our probes detected. We have no idea how these people got here, all we know is they have virtually no technology and that they appear to be beginning to mine something. So I want everyone to proceed with the utmost caution, is that understood?"

"Yes professor," most of the team replied.

"Yes, ma'am," Lieutenant Peter Franklin – the senior of the two security marines assigned to her party – added a moment later before resuming checking his EM-6 Gladius particle rifle, making sure that the weapon was ready to use at a moment's notice.

"Doctor Jackson you should see this," the pilot called out from the front compartment of the shuttle. Frowning slightly Melinda slipped out of her restraint and went forward.

"What is it," she asked. The pilot nodded for her to look out the windshield so that's what she did and blinked in surprise. Beyond the thick deciduous trees that stretched from horizon to horizon she could see the structure that the _Charles Darwin's _sensors had detected, and it was a structure that looked very, very out of place on this world, in this environment.

It was a pyramid. And not just any pyramid but one built in the Egyptian style.

Melinda stared at it in disbelief. An Egyptian pyramid here, thousands of light years and thousands of years away from the culture that had built them. And this pyramid looked new and considerably bigger than even the great pyramid at Giza. _What the hell,_ she thought before glancing down at the sensor displays to confirm that it was indeed there. The sensors confirmed its presence, and revealed that appearances aside the pyramid was not constructed of stone. Instead it seemed to be constructed of something similar to the synth-stone they sometimes used themselves in construction, but reinforced with metallic sheets of an odd alloy of gold, trinium and something else, something the sensors couldn't identify but which seemed to match the particulate dust in the atmosphere.

"I don't believe it," she said looking back up at the pyramid. "A pyramid here and one made of synth-stone, gold and trinium? It makes no sense. This mystery is getting deeper all the time."

"Yes, ma'am," the pilot agreed. "That's why I thought you should see it."

"I appreciate it."

"Shall I set us down right next to it, ma'am?"

"No, the people of this planet seem to be somewhat primitive, I don't want to alarm them by setting down right in their midst. Proceed to our planned landing site; we'll walk the rest of the way."

"Yes, ma'am," the pilot answered. Melinda turned and walked back into the passenger compartment, going over the ever deepening mystery of this planet in her head. First there were humans here – seemingly living a primitive existence with no advanced technology of any kind that their sensors could detect, and mining an unknown mineral, no evidence of how these people had gotten here, and now an Egyptian-style pyramid thousands of light years away from Earth.

"What is it, ma'am," Lieutenant Franklin asked seeing the look on her face.

"This mystery is getting deeper all the time, Lieutenant," Melinda answered. "That structure that the probe sensors picked up is an Egyptian pyramid, or at least one built in Egyptian style."

"What that's impossible," one of the other scientists objected.

"I know, and to make matters even more interesting the pyramid employs quite a sizeable amount of synth-stone, gold and refined trinium in its structure," Melinda replied. "It appears that in coming to this planet we've stumbled upon a great mystery."

"Indeed," agreed the scientist who had spoken. "And I look forward to getting some answers about what is going on on this planet."

"So do I, Fred," Melinda replied sitting back down.

A few moments passed in silence as her words died away and everyone thought about what she had just revealed, trying to understand it in their own heads. Then the silence was broken by the rumble of the VTOL jets as the Columbus-class shuttle came into land, kicking up a cloud of dust and leaves as with the faintest of shudders they set down, the first Terran made vessel to settle on this world.

"Okay people you know the routine," Melinda said standing up. "Helmets on please until we've determined there are no harmful bacteria or viruses in the atmosphere that we have no immunity to."

As she spoke she used her implant to relay a command to the metallic collar at the top of her field survival suit. Instantly it deployed a helmet with a transparent faceplate over her head and filters on the collar came on providing her with clear, but unscented air. Around her the team deployed their own helmets as they all stood up.

"Ready, Lieutenant," Melinda asked turning to look at Lieutenant Franklin as she picked up her field kit, and found herself face to face with the featureless metal of the marine's faceplate. Unlike hers and the scientists the marines helmets didn't provide a transparent viewer, instead the two marines would be seeing the world through high-resolution graphics being projected on heads-up displays inside the helmets with additional information relayed wirelessly to their implants.

"Ready professor," Franklin answered.

"Then let's see if we can solve this mystery," Melinda said going to the back hatch and pressing the release. With a hiss of releasing pressure the ramp-like door opened.

As regulations demanded Lieutenant Franklin went down the ramp first, Gladius rifle at the ready. Carefully he scanned the area for potential threats, the sensors built into his battle-uniform which was part combat armour-part survival jumpsuit building a complete picture of the immediate area in seconds. Aside from some small animals moving in the trees on the opposite side of the clearing they'd set down in there was no immediate danger.

"Clear," he called back.

Immediately Melinda descended the ramp, followed by the rest of the scientists with Sergeant Kyle Walkman bringing up the rear. A silent command to her implant immediately revealed to Melinda where they were in relation to the village and the pyramid that they wished to investigate first. Hopefully once they reached it, it wouldn't take them very long to begin unravelling the mysteries of this world and the human presence on it.

"The pyramid and the village near it are several kilometres due east of here," she said even as she ordered her implant to feed the information wirelessly to the neural implants of the rest of the landing party.

"It shouldn't take long to get that far," Franklin commented.

"You're right it shouldn't," Melinda agreed. "So let's get started shall we people?"

One by one the members of the landing party nodded their agreement. Melinda took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm her nerves, before beginning walking due east towards the pyramid – whose tip was only just visible above the trees. With calm professionalism the rest of the scientists and the two marines fell into a two-by-two column with her as they took their very first steps on the surface of this new world. Heading for a rendezvous with a destiny that none of them could conceive of.

* * *

><p><strong>Codex: Technology: Medical: Medimites<strong>

Medimites are a product of advanced nanotechnology. Smaller than living cells medimites are administered to a patient and immediately begin repairing the body from the inside out. Originally created to battle cancer and other wasting diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, medimites have since been expanded to counter almost all forms of sickness and disease. Medimites can be administered orally through an aerosol mist, an injection or be absorbed through the skin with the exact manner of application varying according to the situation in which they are used.

**Codex: Technology: Neural Implants**

Neural implants are a product of advanced nanotechnology. Essentially a micro-supercomputer in the brain neural implants have a variety of functions based on the specific make and model however all neural implants have some abilities in common. These abilities are pain suppression, recording and indexing of memories, data storage and intelligence enhancement.

**Codex: Technology: Personal Weapons and Armour: EM-6 Gladius**

The EM-6 Gladius is the standard rifle weapon of the Terran Federal Armed Forces. As with most Terran infantry weapons the Gladius is a particle beam weapon with a variety of different functions and settings. Highly accurate up to seven hundred meters the Gladius is capable of firing in single shots, semi-automatic or fully automatic modes depending upon the situation and desire of its user.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Stargate: New Frontier – The Reboot**_

**Chapter Two**

**TFS Charles Darwin**

**Ten Minutes Later**

"Commander what's the status of Doctor Jackson and the landing party," Matthew Drake asked as he returned to the bridge after having nipped out for a few minutes to grab a soothing cup of peppermint tea. His worries over what the presence of humans on this planet could mean had been starting to get to him, making him jumpy. Thus he'd nipped to his ready room and made himself a cup of the peppermint tea an ex-girlfriend of his had introduced him to during their academy days. It never failed to calm him down and enable him to think more clearly, to the point he actually preferred drinking the tea despite the fact that there were a number of implant programs that could do the same thing once consciously activated. After all the biggest downside with the implant program was because it manipulated stress hormone and neurotransmitter levels; keeping you calm and focused was afterwards you got the grandfather of all migraines.

"Sir, our last report from the landing party indicates they are making good progress towards the encampment," Richard reported from the first officer's station. "They also reported that the source of the subspace emissions we detected earlier is a pyramid."

"A pyramid here," Matt repeated in surprise before frowning as an unpleasant thought occurred to him. "Did the landing party indicate which style of pyramid it was?"

Richard checked his screens. "It's an Egyptian pyramid sir, or rather one built in the Egyptian style with a number of modifications including the use of a material analogous to synth-stone and trinium based metallic alloys," he replied.

"Damn it," Matt cursed softly as his fears were confirmed. "Communications contact the landing party, tell them to return to the shuttle and return to the ship immediately. Make sure Melinda knows I want no arguments from her."

"Aye sir," communications acknowledged.

"Then I want you to access the restricted section of the comm. database and prepare to transmit the signal labelled Pandora," Matt continued. "It will ask you for a security authorisation code when you go to transmit, let me know when it does as I'll need to input my code."

"Aye sir."

"Sir what's going on," Richard asked frowning at his new CO. It was obvious that the presence of the pyramid here, specifically the fact that it was built in an Egyptian style, appeared to have seriously alarmed his superior officer. Alarmed him enough that he was ordering a signal to be sent from a database that most ship crews never had cause to access as the contained signals and communications protocols that were almost never followed outside of war time. "What does that pyramid being here, and being composed of surprisingly high tech materials, mean?"

"It means, Commander that we could be in very, very serious trouble," Matt answered. Before sighing even as he realised that now that he had proof, the pyramid was proof enough, that this world did indeed belong to an enemy that most had hoped and prayed that they would never encounter – and thus would have to fight – the Pandora Protocols cleared him to speak. "It means that this world is controlled by a hostile species that we've only had the most tenuous of contact with in the past, a species called the Goa'uld."

Shocked silence filled the bridge for a moment. "Sir are you saying we've encountered an advanced spacefaring race in the past," Richard asked, "and it's been covered up?"

"We've not formally had any contact with the Goa'uld, Commander," Matt explained, "we have however encountered some of their people in the past, individuals who while they were fugitives from their own kind but still desired power and to be worshipped as though they were gods. The most recent being Seth, who was the leader of the cult the Sons of Set."

"The cult that carried out the Rivera Three Massacre?"

"The very same. As you know after that outrage the Sons of Set were tracked back to the asteroid habitat they were using as a base."

Richard nodded. It was a fact that was known to practically every Terran alive. As were the details of the Rivera Three Massacre which occurred when a chapter of the Sons of Set attempted to set up shop on the newly founded colony. Having long been considered a dangerous, unwanted fringe cult the local authorities had not welcomed them. When they tried to force them to leave the Sons of Set had reacted violently, the violence escalating until they were forced away – but as their ship left orbit it had launched an antimatter charge at the colony in retribution. A antimatter charge that had wiped out the colony, snuffing out two and a half million lives in an instant, and to make matters worse they'd deliberated targeted the charge at a nearby dormant super volcano which had instantly gone from dormancy to extremely active, erupting violently a few weeks later effectively rendering the planet uninhabitable for generations.

The entire Terran Federation had reacted with outrage when the news of what the Sons of Set had done spread across the Starnet. It had taken several months but in the end the Sons of Set had been tracked back to their main base of operations, which the navy and special ops soldiers had then attacked and after a long battle conquered. Only to make a horrifying discovery that most, if not all of, the membership had been mind-controlled by a genetically engineered organism unlike anything ever seen before one similar but different to some of the gene-drugs that had long since taken the place of narcotics like heroin and cocaine.

"What isn't know is Seth himself was captured by a Black Falcon unit as he attempted to board an escape craft," Matt continued. "It was determined in interrogation that despite appearances Seth wasn't human but was in fact a serpentine creature inhabiting and controlling a human body. I'm not sure what exactly became of him after that discovery but I do know that from later interrogations he revealed much about his species – presumably as a bargaining tool to save his life – from their name to the fact that they control a vast region of space. It was also learned that they were hostile considering humans and other species as inferior to them and only as a source of potential new slaves or hosts. SOID investigated further and determined that the threat was very, very real. In the aftermath a set of protocols were created that all ship captains are briefed upon before they take up their commands. Protocols that we must now follow to the letter."

"I understand sir," Richard replied a worried frown now decorating his face as he contemplated what he'd just been told. He could also understand why the fact that Seth had been a megalomaniacal alien creature controlling a human body – and was a member of a galactic superpower who saw such behaviour as perfectly acceptable – had not been made available to the public. To do so would have caused a panic as well as had every paranoid and nutcase utterly convinced that their boss, next door neighbour or whatever had been taken over by a Goa'uld.

"Sir I've accessed the Pandora Protocol file," the communications officer reported. "It's asking for both your security code and this planets coordinates."

"Very well," Matt replied before using his implant to summon a holographic terminal into being. A terminal into which he quickly entered his security code as well as transferring this planets coordinates from the navigational computer to the file. In moments he saved the information and dismissed the terminal. "You should be able to send the signal now."

"Roger that, sir," communications acknowledged. "Signal sent."

"Very good," Matt answered with a smile. He was just turning his chair slightly to address Richard again when both the sensor and communications consoles chimed urgently. "Report!"

"Sir urgent message from the shuttle," communications reported, "the ground team report that they've been attacked by a group of hostiles armed with some sort of energy weapons."

"Casualties?"

"They lost one of the scientists, Dr Frank Hammond. The hostiles have retreated for now, Lieutenant Franklin reports that they're now attempting to return to the shuttle."

"Damn it," Matt cursed, like most commanding officers he hated it when he lost people, even though Dr Hammond had been something of a pain in the arse to deal with for both the civilian and military members of the crew. "Tell the landing party to keep me informed of their progress. Sensors?"

"Sir long range scans have picked up a ship in hyperspace, they're heading this way on an intercept course."

"Time to intercept?"

"At their current speed six minutes."

_Damn,_ Matt thought scowling as he leaned back in his command chair. He was under no illusions as to who the incoming ship belonged to, nor was he under any illusion that his ship would be able to hold it off for long if it was indeed a Goa'uld warship. While they knew next to nothing about Goa'uld technology and weaponry in comparison to their own the _Charles Darwin_ wasn't a warship by any stretch of the imagination. While she was as big as a modern Reliance-class destroyer her armaments and shields were – in comparison – positively anaemic. Staying here and getting into a fight with the Goa'uld was not a good idea.

Unfortunately he didn't have much choice. The Pandora Protocols were clear that you didn't leave anyone behind on a Goa'uld world if you stumbled across one without realising it, not if you could help it as the very last thing they wanted or needed was for the Goa'uld to become aware of them and possibly try to conquer them as they had done numerous other races in the past. Until the shuttle, and Melinda's landing party, were back aboard they couldn't leave. Thus he didn't have a choice but to risk it.

"Battle stations," he ordered after a moment. "Commander instruct engineering to transfer as much power as they can spare to the shield generators and the weapons grid. But tell them to keep our hyperdrive online, we'll need to make a quick escape as soon as the shuttle is back aboard."

"Aye sir," Richard acknowledged, fingers flying over the holographic interface as he carried out his orders.

Moments later alarms began to sound throughout the _Charles Darwin_, summoning the relatively small military crew to their battle stations. Simultaneously engineering increased the power output of the main antimatter reactor as well as the secondary molecular fission reactors to provide as much power as possible to the vessels handful of weapons arrays and shield generators. Over all external viewports blasts shields began to close encasing the entire ship in an armoured cocoon.

"All stations report ready for combat, sir," Richard reported looking across the darkening bridge, the light of the planet having been cut off by the closure of the blast shields and the dimming of the lights to battle levels so the crew could better focus on their holographic displays.

"Acknowledged," Matt replied leaning back in his command chair. _And now we wait,_ he thought.

* * *

><p><strong>Planet Surface<strong>

**A Few Minutes Earlier**

Doctor Melinda Jackson stared at Lieutenant Franklin in disbelief at the order that the marine had just relayed from the ship. For a few moments she considered objecting as they were still some distance from the pyramid that her instincts were telling her would be the key to solving the mystery of the human presence on this planet. But somehow she doubted that it would accomplish anything, for some reason Matt wanted them all back in orbit and he wanted them there now. Which meant something had happened, something serious that had made him decide that the surface was not safe. Though what that something could be she had absolutely no idea, though she'd bet a hundred credits that it was related to his uncharacteristic reluctance to send them down here in the first place.

And that made her both confused and suspicious. Confused as it wasn't like Matt to be this evasive about something, suspicious for the same reason. It was by now obvious to her, and everyone else, that he Matthew Drake knew something. And indeed might already have some answers as to what the presence of the Egyptian-style pyramid and the humans on this world meant. It was equally obvious that whatever he knew he wasn't sharing or had been forbidden to.

"Alright, Lieutenant," she said at last, conscious of the fact that Franklin was still waiting for a response from her, "we'll return to the shuttle and make our way back to the ship." _And you better have some answers for me when I get there, Matt,_ she thought, _otherwise you and I are really going to fall out._

"Very good, Doctor," the marine replied.

Melinda turned to address her science team. "Okay people listen up," she said, "Lieutenant Franklin received a message from the shuttle, relayed from the ship. Captain Drake wants us to return to the _Charles Darwin_ immediately, so that's just what we're going to do."

"We're leaving already?" Frank Hammond, one of her team's two xeno-microbiologists asked incredulous. "We've just got here! We've not even taken preliminary samples yet."

"We're leaving," Melinda confirmed, "I know you don't like it, Frank. And the truth be told I don't like it either but something about this planet has, Matt deeply rattled. Rattled enough that he wants us back aboard the ship a.s.a.p."

"But…" Frank started to object.

"No but's, Frank," Melinda barked firmly, her expression reminding the somewhat headstrong scientist that she was the team leader not him, thus what she said went. "We're going and that's final."

Through the transparent bubble of his helmet Frank looked like he was sucking on a lemon but reluctantly nodded in submission. _Why I put up with him sometimes I really don't know,_ Melinda wondered for a moment grateful at least that Frank was being somewhat reasonable about this, even though he was clearly unhappy. The other scientists headstrong nature had caused them to clash on numerous occasions in the past and more than once she'd had to threaten to boot him off the _Charles Darwin's_ science teams – as the final call on members was hers unless someone did something that could affect the safety of the vessel and her crew, then Matt would deal with them himself – in order to get him to behave.

Abruptly both Lieutenant Franklin and the other marine, Sergeant Walkman, stiffened into an alert posture. Both carefully scanning the deciduous woodland surrounding them, Gladius rifles raised and ready. "What is it," Melinda asked, hand inching towards the RD-4 Garrotte pistol she had in a hip holster.

"Movement," Franklin answered.

"Could be an animal," Frank pointed out his own eyes scanning the treeline. A moment later a sound echoed through the air, the sound of someone, or something, blowing on some kind of horn. "That's not an animal," he corrected himself as the sound came again, closer this time. The horn sounded a third time then they all began to hear a new sound, a repeated metallic clanking sound like someone was wearing armour and running.

"We should get moving," Melinda suggested as the metallic clanking sound drew ever closer.

"Agreed," the marine lieutenant answered with a nod. However before anyone could really begin to make a move several humanoid figures appeared on the far side of the small clearing the landing party had been passing through when they'd received the recall order from the _Charles Darwin_.

Melinda studied the new arrivals curiously with both her eyes and her survival suits built in sensor suite. Each was a tall figure of human proportions and had the familiar arrangement of two legs and two arms. Each figure was dressed head to toe in what could almost have been armour from the medieval period of Earth's history as it was composed of sheets of what looked like chainmail, with some panelling of a flexible material over the top. Her suits sensors confirming that the chainmail was made of trinium with the armour panels composed of trinium fibres mixed with some kind of metallic ceramic fibres. Each individual was wearing a helmet that looked like a stylized shark or some other similar predatory fish, and each held a two meter long metallic staff that was made of a mixture of trinium and something that the limited sensor suite of the suit couldn't identify. The staff was also of an odd design bulbous on one end with the far end flaring outwards like the hood of a King Cobra.

For a moment out of time everyone froze motionless. Both the landing party and the strangely garbed newcomers gazing at each other impassively. Then hands out to hopefully show he meant no harm, Frank stepped forward. "Can you understand me," he asked.

"Jaffa," one of the newcomers responded levelling the bulbous end of the staff he/she/it was holding at Frank. Frank frowned and started to open his mouth to speak again in response to the strange word spoken in a very human sounding voice. But before any sound could emerge from his lips the bulbous tip opened with a harsh crack and a massive bolt of golden energy shot forth striking Frank right in the very centre of his torso eliciting a flash of flame while simultaneously picking up the hundred and eighty pound man and knocking him flying with immense force… Franks final scream of surprise and agony as the blast flash vaporised his heart echoing through the air.

"NOOO, Frank," Melinda screamed in shock and horror, barely able to believe she'd someone she'd known well murdered right in front of her. In an instant shock gave way to a blast of anger that had her literally seeing red. "YOU BASTARD," she yelled at the alien figure as, faster than she'd ever done it before in training, she drew her RD-4 Garrotte, levelled it at the figure who'd just killed one of her team in cold blood and fired.

Almost instantly a green bolt of compressed, hyper-accelerated particles shot out of the muzzle of the weapon, sliced through the air and ripped into the torso of her target. The blast picked the alien up and sent him sprawling to the floor with a scream of pain. He did not get up again, instead he lay motionless a thin line of smoke rising from his torso where the neutron blast had ripped through his armour like it was made of eggshells to rip a deep gash in his torso right over his heart – killing him the same way he'd killed Frank.

For a moment shocked silence reigned. Melinda staring at the body of the being she'd just killed and, as the kilowatt pulse of anger triggered by Frank's murder wore off, suddenly fighting the urge to throw up in her helmet as she'd never fired a weapon outside the range before now, let alone killed someone with one. The aliens for their part staring in surprise as they'd obviously not expected that response or for the intruders their superiors had dispatched them to apprehend or kill to possess weapons capable of punching through the armour of the gods.

The Jaffa shook off their shock first. "Jaffa kree'tak," the most senior of the surviving Jaffa patrol screamed, levelling his ma'tok staff and opening it to fire.

"Oh no you don't," Lieutenant Franklin growled under his breath before firing his Gladius at the offending alien unleashing a searing green beam that caught the being high in the torso, and instantly dropped him to the deck dead before he even knew what was happening. Not giving the hostiles a chance to react he fired on the next alien in line dropping him as well. Nearby Sergeant Walkman copied his actions killing another alien.

With four of their number now down the aliens immediately began falling back, firing golden bolts from their staff-like weapons as they did so in an attempt to cover themselves. Franklin grunted as one of the bolts hit his chest armour and immediately broke apart in a blizzard of glowing golden sparklers and static like arcs as the energy dispersive layer build into the combat shell he was wearing dissipated the plasmatic energy and refracted it back into the air – leaving only the physical impact of the blast – which itself was cushioned significantly as the smart fabric of survival suit beneath stiffened dissipating the force as much possible so to Franklin the hit – which had knocked poor Frank flying – only registered like the impact of a punch.

Ignoring the impact, aside from the slight grunt that emerged from his lips, he kept firing back at the hostiles mowing down another before they disappeared into the trees. "We should head back to the shuttle now," he suggested, "from the way they reacted our firepower, and the fact that neutron beams pierce their armour, caught them by surprise. But they'll probably soon be back and in greater numbers and we're not outfitted for sustained combat."

"What about, Frank we can't leave him here," Melinda replied even as she nodded in agreement. She was well aware that Franklin was right as the only weapons they had were the Garrotte pistols the science team was armed with and the Gladius rifles both marines carried alongside a few thermal grenades. Plus they weren't armoured that well, both marines were only wearing combat shells over their survival suits which was designed more for security purposes and light police actions than heavy ground combat.

"I could carry him," Marco Nathansen, one of the team's xeno-archaeologists and one of the most rabid fitness fanatic's aboard the _Charles Darwin_, offered.

Franklin nodded in agreement knowing Marco was both fit enough and strong enough for the task. "Alright," he agreed.

"Are you sure you can manage, Marco," Melinda asked.

"I am," Marco confirmed, "you'll just need to keep those alien bastards off me if they try and stop us returning to the shuttle."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Franklin confirmed. "We can just form a perimeter around you while we fall back. And speaking of that we should get going."

"Agreed."

With that the science team began to organise themselves for the trip back to the shuttle and eventually the safety of the _Charles Darwin_. While Marco carefully, respectfully, picked up the body of their colleague and put it over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and the rest of the team formed a perimeter around him Franklin used his implant to send a report of the attack to the shuttle for immediate relay to the ship.

"We're ready," Melinda said to him as he finished.

"Then let's get moving," he replied carefully bringing the Gladius up to his shoulder before taking the lead for the, hopefully trouble free, trek back through the forest to the shuttle.

* * *

><p><strong>TFS Charles Darwin<strong>

**A Few Minutes Later**

"Sir the landing party report that they've made it back to the shuttle without incident," communications reported, "the shuttle is lifting off now and should be back aboard within another few minutes."

"Excellent," Matt replied feeling a profound sense of relief that the science team had made it back to the shuttle without any further contacts with the aliens and would soon be safely back aboard the ship. But his relief was tempered by the knowledge that they were cutting the timing awful close, the alien ship would be out of hyperspace very soon and he had no idea how long the _Charles Darwin's_ shields would protect her should it prove to be a warship as they still knew so little about modern Goa'uld technology. "Sensors where's the alien ship now?"

"They're just entering the system sir," sensors reported grimly, "they'll be here in less than a minute."

"The shuttle's not going to make it," Richard commented from the first officer's station. "We'll need to buy them some time. Do you think the Goa'uld will be willing to negotiate, sir?"

"Probably not, Commander," Matt admitted recalling the psychological assessment of the Goa'uld that SOID had complied from their observations of them. An assessment that indicated that the Goa'uld were posturing egomaniacs with an insatiable lust for power, a megalomaniacal god complex as big as the galactic core, and little real use for diplomacy. "Still it couldn't hurt to try," he added as there was always a chance that a miracle would happen and that the aliens would be in a diplomatic mood, albeit a slim one.

The sensors chirped. "Sir, hyperspace window forming on a bearing of zero one zero, mark zero four one. Distance thirty thousand kilometres," sensors reported.

"Show me," Matt ordered. Immediately a holographic screen coalesced into existence in front of his command chair showing the image of a hyperspace window forming very close to the _Charles Darwin._

It was immediately obvious that it wasn't Terran in origin as while the hyperspace windows created by Terran drives tended to be whitish-blue in colour this one looked more like a dark purple-blue cloud almost like a bruise in space. The centre of the window pulsed and a ship emerged from the centre a moment before it dissipated, the ships outlines briefly blurred by the effects of hyperspace inertia before it slowed to a stop.

It was truly an alien ship.

The central third of the ship appeared to be a perfect tetrahedron made of a golden metal and lined with lights that marked deck after deck. The golden pyramid stood on a dark hexagonal platform that rose to about a third of the way up the pyramidal superstructure. As with the core it was covered with line after line of lights. It was a big ship too, dwarfing the two hundred and seventy meter long _Charles Darwin _by a considerable margin.

The communications station trilled for attention. "Sir we're being hailed by the alien vessel," communications reported, "audio only."

"Tie it into the Pandora Protocols file it should hold a translation matrix," Matt ordered, "then put it through."

"Aye sir."

For a moment nothing more happened then the overhead speakers crackled to life. "Unknown vessel you have trespassed on the domain of the Great God Poseidon," a business-like male voice stated calmly. "You are ordered to surrender and prepare to be boarded in his name or you will be fired upon. You have one minute to comply."

"Open a channel," Matt instructed communications.

"Channel open, sir."

_Here's goes nothing,_ Matt thought before speaking. "Alien vessel. This is Captain Matthew Drake of the Terran Federation ship _Charles Darwin._ Negative on surrender however in the interests of peaceful co-existence we are prepared to withdraw from this system."

"They've closed the channel sir," communications reported a moment before there came a dull, rumbling thud like thunder in the distance and the deck shuddered beneath them as a blast of golden energy slammed into the ships forward shields.

"Direct hit," tactical reported as another bolt of energy shot out of the alien ship and slammed into the forward shields. "Alien weapons are some kind of focused plasma discharge, our shields are holding."

"Plasma cannons!" Richard exclaimed incredulous. "Who uses plasma cannons anymore? We abandoned plasma-based pulse weapons generations ago."

The ship shuddered again as a third plasma bolt slammed into the forward shields. "They maybe crude by our standards but they're packing quite a punch for plasma weapons," tactical replied. "Forward shields down to ninety-eight percent. Captain the Goa'uld ship is launching fighters… from their trajectory they're aiming to attack the shuttle as it clears the atmosphere."

"Shoot them down," Matt ordered as a forth bolt against the shields rattled the ship. "Main guns return fire upon the Goa'uld ship, let's see if their shields are as crude as their weapons appear to be."

"Aye sir."

* * *

><p>The wing of gliders launched from the Goa'uld mothership were confident as they started to pass the vessel that had dared to trespass in their Gods domain, on course for the small shuttlecraft rising out of the atmosphere obviously intent on returning to its mothership. The Jaffa's confidence was rudely shattered when as they started to pass to port and starboard the few lateral mounted weapons on the <em>Charles Darwin <em>opened up on them – slender sun yellow fission lasers lancing out and cutting four of their number in half immediately.

Though startled the Jaffa pilots reacted instantly, beginning to take evasive action to break the alien targeting locks, while continuing towards the shuttle with pure bull headed Jaffa stubbornness to complete their assignment. It did little good as four more gliders were sliced apart by the alien weapons before they were past the vessel, another pair joining them as the aft fission lasers cut them down before the remaining four crossed out of the relatively narrow firing cones of the fission lasers.

Even as the gilders suffered at the hands of the _Charles Darwin's _secondary fission lasers the exploration and survey vessels two main guns opened up upon the Goa'uld mothership. Silver coloured beams of pure antiprotons blasting toward the Ha'tak-class vessel and smashing into its shields with white-hot force. The Goa'uld shield flared brightly into visibility as the streams of hyper accelerated antimatter particles assaulted them. The antiproton beams vanished but only for a moment before lashing out again slamming into the shields again and again putting them under considerable strain.

Gold and whitish-gold bolts of superheated plasma shot back from multiple primary and secondary cannon arrays on the Ha'tak as the now concerned and mildly intimidated Jaffa crewing the Ha'tak increased fire upon the surprisingly powerful and defiant Terran vessel. The _Charles Darwin's _hull conformal shields flared with a bright silver-blue glow as the strain of the Goa'uld weapons fire began to mount upon them.

Despite the battering the _Charles Darwin_ gave as good as she got, both antiproton cannons and all four forward facing fission lasers slamming into the Goa'uld shields with white hot force as the battle turned into a straight out slugging match between them. It was a battle the _Charles Darwin _was always going to lose as while her own weapons were steadily ripping strength away from the Goa'uld shields her own shields, while powerful, were never really meant to hold in a protracted engagement against another ship let alone a warship.

With a brilliant flash of pyrotechnics they gave way. Plasma blasts from the Goa'uld ship immediately slammed into the dense trinium/carbon nanomesh hull of the vessel with immense force.

* * *

><p><strong>Bridge<strong>

**TFS Charles Darwin**

Matt groaned as he picked himself up off the deck where he'd just been slammed by the last hit from the Goa'uld ship. He didn't need to be told that their shields had failed under the enemy fire, in fact he was surprised they'd held as long as they had.

"Damage report," he ordered staggering back to his command chair and sitting down.

"Shields have failed," tactical reported as the ship shook violently again and new alarms began to sound, warning of damage being sustained. "Outer hull integrity down to sixty percent, a few more hits and we'll have a breach. Electrical fires have been detected in sections A1 through A5 on decks two and three."

"Shuttle status," Matt ordered grimacing as the ship shook violently yet again and sparks abruptly shot out from numerous junction boxes around the bridge.

"The shuttle reports that they're under heavy fire from the surviving Goa'uld fighters," Richard reported, "shuttle shields are down to sixty percent. They're not going to make it back here sir."

"Damn it," Matt growled. "Alright tell them to return to the surface. As soon as they're down tell them to abandon and destroy the shuttle – I don't want the Goa'uld getting their hands on its technology – and to find somewhere to hide until someone can come back for them."

"Aye sir," communications acknowledged a moment before the most violent hit yet rocked the ship and a new alarm began to sound, an alarm every spacer feared. As it was an alarm warning of a hull breach.

"Hull breach," Richard reported reading the damage report as it appeared on his display, "outer and inner hull failure in sections A4 through A6 on decks three, four and five. Emergency force fields activated and holding. Collateral damage in all forward compartments. Thirty percent power loss. Sir we're not going to survive much longer we need to get out of here now."

"I know," Matt growled. "Helm get us out of here. Tactical launch antimatter charges to cover our withdrawal."

"Aye sir."

* * *

><p>A soft shiver ran through the <em>Charles Darwin<em> as four dart shaped projectiles launched from their tubes in her belly and shot towards the Goa'uld ship at sixty PSL. The Goa'uld sensors immediately detected the danger and the Ha'tak began rapid firing every cannon it could at the incoming projectiles before they could hit.

It did little good as the antimatter charges were travelling so fast and fired from such close range that the Goa'uld only managed to shoot down one, the projectile vanishing in a momentary fireball as matter and antimatter met and annihilated each other. The remaining three weapons, their smart guidance and navigational systems skirting the fireball with ease, slammed into the Ha'tak's shields and detonated wrapping the vessel in a wall of energy hotter than the surface of a blue-giant sun.

With the Goa'uld sensors momentarily blinded by the blast the _Charles Darwin_ pulled out of orbit, opened a hyperspace window and vanished from normal space.

The first battle between Terrans and the forces of the Goa'uld was over.

* * *

><p><strong>Codex: Technology: Personal Weapons and Armour: RD-4 Garrotte<strong>

The RD-4 Garrotte is the standard pistol weapon used by Federation military forces and can even be found in civilian use. Like the EM-6 Gladius the Garrotte is a particle based directed energy weapon however unlike the Gladius – which fires a distinct beam – the Garrotte fires smaller pulses of energy. A rugged and reliable weapon the Garrotte only has two firing modes these being single shot and a semi-automatic three pulse burst. The use of single shot mode it advised as semi-automatic fire will rapidly drain the weapons power cell.

**Codex: Technology: Personal Weapons and Armour: Combat Shell**

The combat shell is a form of light body armour regularly used by Federation marine forces as well as law enforcement agencies. Composed of a high tech durable ceramic-trinium alloy a combat shell can be easily worn over normal clothing or a survival suite and can withstand fire from most weapons. Military models also come with an energy dispersive layer in the shell to better withstand strikes from higher powered weapons as well as shrapnel from grenades.

**Codex: Technology: Power Generation: Molecular Fission Reactors**

Molecular fission reactors are advanced power sources that have long since replaced fusion reactors aboard Terran starships. Through a complex process molecular fission generators use a modulated energy field to split even the most stable of atoms and molecules apart releasing massive quantities of energy. When initially developed it was hoped that molecular fission generators would replace antimatter reactors as the primary power source of Terran starships however this hope proved to be in vain as while they generate much more power than the most advanced fusion reactors molecular fission reactors are insufficient to power all but the most basic models of hyperdrive.

**Codex: Technology: Starship Weapons: Antimatter Charges**

Antimatter charges are powered projectiles that serve the same role as torpedoes and missiles did on ocean going military vessels. The destructive power of an antimatter charge can be varied by adjusting the amount of antimatter reactant loaded into the weapon before it is fired. There is considerable black market interest in acquiring and selling antimatter charges to terrorist groups and pirates however this has become very difficult in the decades since the Rivera Three Massacre.

**Codex: Technology: Starship Weapons: Fission Lasers**

Fission lasers use the same basic technology as the molecular fission reactor. Only in a fission laser the energy field is extremely lightly focused. Fission lasers are high precision weapons and are capable of cutting through all materials known to Terran science with relative ease however their effect on shields is limited, it is for this reason that fission lasers are relegated to a secondary weapons role.

**Codex: Technology: Starship Weapons: Antiproton Cannons**

Antiproton cannons are the standard particle beam weapons used by Terran starships. Antimatter particles taken straight from a ships reactor system are hyper accelerated and compressed into a tight beam by electromagnetic and subspace fields before being projected towards the target. Extremely powerful and very destructive antiproton beams come in a variety of sizes aboard military spacecraft.

**Codex: Organisations: Military: SOID**

The Special Operations and Intelligence Directorate is a subdivision of the Federation's armed forces and is charged with overseeing all special operations activities against the Federation's enemies as well as the gathering of intelligence against all enemies both foreign and domestic that the Terran Federation might face. To assist in its duties SOID operates a fleet of stealth frigates and cruisers all of which are capable of cloaking and deploying a unit of Black Falcon commandoes without being detected.

**Codex: Organisations: Military: Black Falcons**

The Black Falcons are the most elite Special Forces in the Terran Federation armed forces. Using a number of nano-cybernetic implants and genetic enhancement each commando is gifted with massively enhanced physical strength, speed and endurance. On average a Black Falcon commando is five to six times stronger and four times faster than a normal human being even when not using their body armour.

* * *

><p>Author Notes: Well I hope you all liked this particular update and the changes I've made to Terran technology. I was originally going to include the shuttles fate in this chapter but it was making it a bit too long for my tastes so you'll find out what will happen to Melinda and the rest of the science team in the next chapter.<p> 


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